President Donald Trump emerged from his summit with Kim Jong Un with fresh hopes for peace in Korea – and a full-blown North Korea apologist.

An estimated 100,000 North Koreans live in political prisons in conditions on par with the inhumanity of Nazi German death camps. All North Koreans live oppressed in their self-expression by Kim’s government.

Trump not only sidelined talk about North Korea’s human-rights record – he offered apologies for Kim, saying Kim had just done what he had seen done and loved his people.

President Donald Trump emerged from Tuesday’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, perhaps the most brutal abuser of humanity on the planet, with fresh hopes for peace in Korea.

And what stunned many observers was a shift in rhetoric that made Trump sound like a full-blown North Korea apologist.

An estimated 100,000 North Koreans live in political prisons on par with the inhumanity of Nazi German death camps. North Koreans can get locked up in these prisons for offenses as mild as listening to South Korean music.

In his State of the Union address, Trump acknowledged this, calling North Korea “depraved” and shouting out a North Korean defector who had been abused by the regime.

But after meeting Kim on Tuesday, Trump shifted his tone.

“It’s a rough situation over there – there’s no question about it,” Trump said of North Korea’s human-rights abuses. “It’s rough in a lot of places by the way, not just there.”

In diplomacy, not every issue can be dealt with at once. Trump, as US president, has a responsibility to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threat toward his people before he champions the rights of North Koreans. But in a media blitz after the summit, he brushed aside and deflected criticism of North Korea’s human-rights record under Kim, calling Kim “funny,” “smart,” and “talented.”

Asked in a press conference whether he had betrayed the 100,000 or so political prisoners, many of whom would live their lives caged for relatively mild criticism of Kim or deviations the regime’s narratives, Trump tried to argue that he had actually helped them.

“I think I’ve helped them. Things will change. … I think they are one of the great winners today,” Trump said, adding that “there’s not much I can do right now.”

“Really, he’s got a great personality,” Trump told Van Susteren. “He’s a funny guy, he’s very smart, he’s a great negotiator. He loves his people, not that I’m surprised by that, but he loves his people.”